Sharks in Venice (2008)

Sadly Over-hyped

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Brought to Italy with news on his father, a man and his girlfriend learn the entire set-up was a ruse by local mafia-heads to assist them in locating priceless artifacts stored in local shark-infested waters and must brave the sharks to rescue her from their clutches.With a lot to like about this one and a couple of minor flaws, this one comes off as a rather impressive entry. One of the best aspects is that the film manages to get a lot of enjoyment out of it's premise, since not only is the Venice location unique enough it offers up plenty of fun times with it. Due to the unique outline of the city and its actual location put to great use here, the set-ups in the streets add a different dimension to it all with a couple of awesome attacks that can only happen in that kind of setting. The attack on the drunken couple walking along the pier or the gondola massacre are scenes that are very hard to realistically pull-off without this kind of situation to be able to handle it, and are highlights of the film. For even more fun we have two extended foot-chases through the unique streets, both featuring lots of different action tactics that make them exciting and a lot of fun. The main reason for this one, though, is the underwater action with the sharks. There's plenty of suspense, as the opening dive and a later one in the same area are just unnerving, chilling and tense being in the darkened, twisting, confusing and unknown tunnels helps, as do the murky waters and occasional bloody shark attack. We get plenty of action as well as several dives are quite interactive with the sharks that serve many nice functions along the way. With an impressive body count here not just from the sharks getting some nice brutal kills as well, these features make the film quite enjoyable. There wasn't a whole lot really wrong with this one. One of the biggest issues with the film is that there's very little to be threatened about from these sharks. Despite displaying the false characteristic of constantly growling, the constant use of stock footage that has already been used in over twenty different films is something to get over. Mixed somewhat nicely into the action, the fact remains that all of these movies feature the same footage over and over so it gets repetitive fast. That it's also mixed somewhat ineffectively with the completely false-looking heads for the attacks is something else entirely. The other flaw to this one is that the film gets really low on shark action for it's middle half. It opens and closes with some good shark action, but it decides on the Mafia subplot for those scenes, and it takes away from the shark story. Beyond an occasional attack, there isn't much mentioned about them, which does deflate the film a tad. These, though, are the film's flaws.Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

This was the worst movie i have ever seen in my entire life. The cover is pretty cool, gives a really different view of shark attacks. But the rest of the movie was bad. Real bad. The worst part was the two ''drunken'' people by the stairs, and the shark who jumped 10 meter out of the water to grab them both. It is magical how he grabbed the girl, because in the amazing special effect, i only saw the boy screaming for his live.Also the parts when the 'discovery channel' shark came to kill everybody, i was looking at the Atlantic ocean, complete with sea-gulls.And the best part of all:D : Every time the killer shark is coming, you see a swarm of tropical fish near him. Fish who only lives on 20 meters of depth. -_-.If they had put more sharks in the movie instead of thugs in black, the movie was maybe a little bit better.Even for a low budget movie it was terrible.

A B-Movie that makes a common mistake. It sidelines the perfectly ridiculous/stupid idea of Sharks in Venice, for a plot involving hidden treasure and the mafia. I didn't come here for no stale performances from humans, I wanted stock footage mixed with obvious CGI. I did get quite a bit of this, but not enough. As someone that appreciates the tacky genre, at least give me what you promise. Especially when the title is that clear. If not, then be more creative, such as "Mysteries of Venice", as this can relate to the treasure and the shark. Baldwin is a perfectly fine actor that takes, even this role, pretty seriously. There are unintentional laughs, bad accents and even epic medieval battles. It's got a lot, but not enough.

In the first underwater scene, we get to see obvious plastic plants growing in almost total darkness, and a stock footage shark viciously attacking three divers in a row, one by one, without the other divers even noticing. Next we get to see more shark stock footage, only this time the sharks are surrounded by schools of colorful fish that only swim in tropical waters, 1000 miles from Venice. After our hero, Stephen Baldwin is nearly torn in half by a Great White, he manages to walk out of the hospital the next day without a scratch. Even more hilarious than the stock footage sharks are the worse C.G.I. sharks, as one mafia diver appears to actually stick his head into a sharks mouth instead of the other way around. But wait there's more. Stephen Baldwin shouting to a policeman "He's got a gun", as he's being sprayed with bullets by a mafia goon. Steathy mafia bad guys attacking a sleeping Baldwin in the middle of the night, yet when he escapes his hotel, people are strolling and shopping as if it were 12 noon. The mafia plan for protecting the treasure is brilliant, putting baby sharks into the canals and when they grow too big they cannot escape. The only flaw seems to be that they have nothing to eat, as no fish or baby seals are living in the polluted canals. The finale is beyond belief, sort of a montage of an underwater fight that lasts for minutes on end with neither combatant surfacing for air, stock shark footage, a girlfriend standing in the middle of an explosive gun battle without taking cover, more stock shark footage, a hovering police helicopter that has nothing to do with the story, and unbelievably the treasure stays where it is, and the shark problem is never dealt with. Bad movie festivals should ban "Sharks in Venice", as this is unfair competition for even Ed Wood's masterpieces. The ridiculous story, bad acting, terrible effects, and most importantly, all this is taken seriously, insures "Sharks in Venice" to be voted the worst of the worst, unless of course there is to be a sequel? We can only dream of such a wonder. - MERK